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07.24.01. G-7 The Protestors. A-Letter.
THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER
Your Link to Freedom, Prosperity & Privacy in the Offshore World
Tuesday, July 24, 2001 - Vol. 3 No. 58
In This Issue:
* COMMENT: Opposites Attact at Genoa: G-8 & the Protesters
* OFFSHORE: Haven Pressure Eases. Global Tax Slavery. New US-UK Tax Treaty. Bush's Invisible Hand. Swiss Banks, Francs Still Safe. Liechtenstein News, Good & Bad. Grenada Background Checks. New SEC Head's Bad Idea. South African Corruption. Bribery Hypocrisy.
* WEALTH: G-8 Hits Money Laundering. UK, Irish & Thai ML Problems. Lord Archer's Jersey Accounts. Barclays' Turnaround. Hedge Fund Follies? Evergreen Fund Crash. Banks Compromise Client Privacy. US Income Tax Legality Hearings. Save Taxes, Move Intellectual Property Offshore.
COMMENT: Genoa: G-7 and the Protesters
by Bob Bauman, Editor
For a while I was at a loss as to what today's commentary should address. No OECD shock troop accountants were wading ashore in Panama. No EU financial SWAT teams had raided Swiss banks. France hadn't kidnapped any more Luxembourg insurance executives.
Then television coverage of the anarchic frenzy in the streets of Genoa, coupled with Monday's Wall Street Journal editorial gave me needed inspiration. "Genoa's Folly"
LINK (subscibers only): http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB99583809534460942.htm
It occurred to me that, with the shining exception of US Pres. George W. BUSH, most of the G-8 leaders and the anti-globalization street thugs have much in common. They would deny it, but when convenient they share similar views and use similar tactics against free trade. Indeed German and French leaders admit their affinity for the protesters.
See LINKS: Click Here and here.
The "free trade" to which I refer is the free movement of business and personal capital among countries based on comparative taxes, cost of doing business with minimal government restrictions. The hard core nihilists and the college kids who serve as their dupes oppose free trade claiming to believe it hurts the poor of the world. The G-7 and their OECD and FATF puppets want to control tax havens and capital movements because they claim their nations' poor (and tax collectors) are robbed of needed tax revenues.
Think about it. Most of the G-7 leaders (Bush & Berlusconi excepted)and the anarchists oppose true, unfettered free trade. Both want to control trade and business for their own ends and in their own ways.
Both distrust capitalism, except when it serves their own ends. The G-7 governments see capitalists as tax cash cows to be regulated and milked. And notice how well dressed are many of those brick and bottle hurling protesters who gather from around the world?
Tactically, both mask true aims in public relations prose, lacking courage to state their true goals. Both are willing to use violent means to achieve their ends, Seattle and Genoa being exhibits for the street thugs. The OECD's threatened financial sanctions aimed at destroying the economies of 35 small haven nations is the G-7 equivalent.
LINK: Click Here.
And given success, both the G-7 and the anarchists actually will do great harm to those they claim to wish to help, poverty stricken or capitalist.
These seeming opposites deserve each other, though not at the price of death and destruction. As The Journal suggested, what was need from G-7 leaders was "a robust defense of economic freedom." Instead the world got platitudes, one dead and scores of injured demonstrators and police. It was left to the new kid on the G-7 block, George Bush, the guy who stopped the OECD tax haven onslaught, to say what needed to be said: "Free trade is the best avenue for growth in all countries."
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* OFFSHORE *
PRESSURE ON HAVENS EASES
In the wake of Bush administration support for tax havens at US Senate hearings and official silence from the OECD tax hounds, the heat on offshore tax havens seems to be cooling.
LINK: Click Here.
The Chicago Tribune gets in late on the tax haven issue, giving a somewhat biased, but full summary of what's happened.
LINK (free reg req): http://chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0107220067jul22.story
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GLOBAL TAX SLAVERY
What does the OECD's demand for global tax reporting have to do with slavery? Columnist Paul Craig ROBERTS explains.
LINK: Click Here.
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NEW US - UK TREATY MAY SAVE TAXES
An update of a 1975 tax treaty abolishes the 5% withholding tax on dividend payments to British companies by US subsidiaries.
LINKS: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=4592 and Click Here.
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INVISIBLE HAND GUIDES BUSH ON ECONOMY
You read about him first in the A-Letter last December. Now the International Herald Tribune discovers Lawrence LINDSEY. He "played a central role in Washington's opposition to plans by the OECD to stem 'harmful tax competition' by cracking down on tax havens."
LINK: http://www.iht.com/articles/26708.htm
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SWITZERLAND STILL A SAFE HAVEN
Cash and cachet of Swiss bank accounts: wealthy US investors enjoy tax free benefits with this traditional banking status symbol.
LINK: Click Here.
And the almighty US$ isn't the only refuge. Amid fears of a global crisis, sterling and the Swiss franc are worth a close look.
LINK: Click Here.
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LIECHTENSTEIN: GOOD & BAD NEWS
VADUZ: Liechtenstein, Austria and Switzerland are cooperating on mutual legal assistance requests using new laws to combat money laundering, tax evasion and financial fraud. Investigations way up!
LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=4571
None too soon, as two financial advisers here are charged with laundering millions of dollars for the Cali, Columbia drug cartel.
LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/20/international/20BRIE.html
And money laundering rumors reportedly have damaged the profits of the principality's Verwaltung und Privat Bank.
LINK: http://futurevantage.com/en/charlie/getitemz.mv?nrec=u19509&sd=
But this is still a great haven for basing an offshore corporation or holding company with maximum privacy and safety.
LINK (free reg): Click Here.
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GRENADA CITIZENSHIP CHECKS
ST. GEORGE'S. As of Aug. 13 the government of Grenada requires an additional independent background investigation for economic citizenship applicants. For more about Grenada's program, see Henley & Partner at:
LINK: http://www.henleyglobal.com/grenada.htm
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BUSH S.E.C. HEAD'S BAD IDEA
The new SEC chairman wants to discourage Americans from offshore investments where, he claims, they "often lack protection of the laws the [SEC] enforces." That's the best reason to invest offshore!
LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/20/business/20SECU.html
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SOUTH AFRICAN CORRUPTION
JOHANNESBURG: Many South African corporate giants have moved their local listings to foreign stock markets because of international perceptions of corruption in the country.
LINK: http://www.dispatch.co.za/2001/07/23/southafrica/CORRUPT.HTM
A frank look at the hypocrisy of major nations that criticize Third World nations for allowing bribery and corruption.
LINK: Click Here.
And in SWITZERLAND corruption may cost $1.5 billion a year.
LINK: http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=111&sid=761687
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* WEALTH*
G-8 MEETING HITS MONEY LAUNDERING
GENOA, Italy. Lost in the rioting, the G-8 endorsed "New action to clamp down on money laundering through offshore financial centers."
LINK: Xlick Here.
Money laundering is becoming a serious problem in the UNITED KINGDOM, says the Serious Fraud Office.
LINK: Click Here.
IRELAND's criminal money laundering cases now number over 4000.
LINK: Click Here.
And THAILAND is now enforcing its new anti-money laundering and property forfeiture laws.
LINK (free registration required): Click Here.
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GUILTY LORD MAY HAVE USED TAX HAVEN
British Lord Jeffrey ARCHER, convicted of perjury and perverting justice, is investigated by the UK Inland Revenue, including secretly moving cash in and out of a tax free offshore account in JERSEY.
LINKS: http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/shtml/NEWS/P2S1.shtml and http://www.accountancyage.co.uk/News/1123516
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BARCLAYS BANK TURNAROUND
LONDON. This crusty old Brit institution is undergoing a major overhaul.
LINK (free reg req): http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2001/0806/060.html
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$500 BILLION HEDGE FUND FOLLY
FORBES asks: "What's so alluring about unregulated investment partnerships? They soak you with high fees and under perform the market."
LINK: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2001/0806/070.html
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EVERGREEN FUND LOST $214 MILLION
ORLANDO, Florida. State regulators having difficulty finding 2000 investors who lost millions in the collapse of the Everegreen Fund.
LINKS: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=4602 and http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/09/business/09EVER.html
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BANKS IGNORE WARNINGS
Identity thieves and information brokers regularly trick bank clerks into giving them access to individuals' financial information.
LINK: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27475-2001Jul20.html
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U.S. INCOME TAX HEARINGS
The US Justice Dept. says the IRS will hold public hearings on the legality and constitutionality of the US income tax.
LINK: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=23746
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MOVE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFSHORE
How to save taxes by transferring intellectual property rights to legal entities in low tax jurisdictions.
LINKS: http://www.tax-news.com/asp/story/story.asp?storyname=4603
Full text at: http://ecommercetax.com/doc/070101.htm
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THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY OFFSHORE A-LETTER. E-mail to: info@sovereignsociety.com. * SUBSCRIBE FREE or send to a friend at LINK: http://www.sovereignsociety.com
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THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY Ltd., 5 Catherine St., Waterford, Ireland. TEL: 353-51 844 068 FAX: 353-51 304 561. Copyright (C) 2001. All domestic & international rights reserved.
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